Mercy
by ValandMarcelle
Summary: She has shown mercy to a boy who has never seen it before.


**Woah, a story by Marcelle that ****_isn't _****about Romeo? Has the world gone mad? **

**Nope, not today! I was listening to the song ****_Mercy_**** by OneRepublic when it hit me-the song was MADE for Jack and Katherine. It describes Jack's transformation thanks to Katherine almost perfectly...so of course, I had to write a songfic about it. This is my first attempt at something of this nature, and I really hope it turned out well. I reccommend listening to the song while you read this.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies (oh but don't I wish) or****_ Mercy_****, that belongs to Ryan Tedder. **

**Enjoy!**

**-Marcelle**

* * *

_Angel of mercy, how did you find me? How did you read my story? _

* * *

There are some moments where Jack stops and wonders how it all happened. He tries to fathom what he could have ever done to deserve her, how she could have come to love someone like him. It all seems so unlikely, as though it were a story he'd conjure up to sell a paper, rather than his own reality. But after all of the wondering and pondering, the surreal, dream-like feeling wears off, and Jack is left with a simple sense of joy thay she is his.

Because he honestly does not know where he would be-or _who _he would be- if Katherine had not found him when she did.

* * *

_Pulled from the papers, desperate and hardened, seeking a momentary fix. _

* * *

At first, she is nothing more than a passing distraction, soft on the eyes and seeming to want nothing to do with him. This does not bother Jack, in fact it amuses him that she bothers to respond to him at all, let alone deliver a witty line at the drop of a hat. And yes, this impresses him, but his lifestyle reminds him daily that she is unattainable. He has seen her twice, even sketched her, but that is as far as any bond between them will ever reach. After all, what are the odds that they will meet a third time? Manhattan is an irritatingly congested city, and they clearly do not fly in the same circles. No, Miss Plumber will never become a constant in his life. Just as any other pleasures of his, she is only temporary. This, Jack realizes, is okay with him. Until suddenly, it isn't.

* * *

_All I wanted to say, all I wanted to do, is fall apart now. All I wanted to feel, I wanted to love, it's all my fault now._

_A tragedy I fear. _

* * *

Jack does not think of her after the strike. His mind revolves only around the complete and total failure of what he has done. Everything inside of him wants to collapse. Crutchie is gone, the boys have been hurt, and he has made it so. Jack has felt too strongly, cared too much, and it has been his own undoing. Nothing can redeem him now, and his guilt blinds him of any other choice than the first one that comes to him. He has to leave.

Jack has to leave this place of hardship, where the streets trap and confine and ruin, where giants are not fictitious and are every bit as greedy as legend has made them out to be. He has to cleanse himself of his very name and everything it had meant to him. He is no longer that name, and nothing can bring him back to who he was. Jack Kelly has left only tragedy in his wake.

* * *

_Angel of mercy, how did you find me? How did you pick me up again? Angel of mercy, how did you move me? Why am I on my feet again? _

* * *

He is very lucky that Katherine is a reporter. Otherwise, she may not have been in his penthouse that night, and Jack may never have forgiven her. The sight of her pawing through his drawings of the Refuge stings at first for several reasons. He had sketched the bleak images in the hope of removing them from his own mind, in the hope of learning how to forget. But seeing his memories shuffling in Katherine's hands reawakens them, and they mix with the anger he now feels at the reminder of what she has done.

Katherine has betrayed him, had been on the side of the devil all along, has never been who she says she was. These are facts to him, irrefutable and undeniable. At least, they are until she begins to speak, and Jack begins to listen.

Suddenly, as he looks at herm something begins to stir in him. It is almost like what he had felt when he had spoken to her before the strike-a spark. But now it is an ember, carrying all the potential to erupt into something unstoppable. Yes, the ember had dimmed, and it had almost flickered out entirely, but now Jack knows it has erupted. The flames are licking the air, kindling a belief in him. He believes in Katherine Pulitzer.

She is no longer a distraction, no longer just a want that he wishes he could have. He needs her, for she has shown him mercy from a life that he does not want. Katherine will help him, she has been helping him all along, and now he knows this more than he knows himself. But still, where there is belief, doubt can always find a way to linger.

How much longer can this last? The odds are stacked against them, time unceasing, and for once, Jack is afraid. All he wants is to make a home in this moment, where Katherine stands across from him and he finally understands her. Who she is, what she's done. How she feels for him.

But her words reach him, sooth him in a way that finally feels real, not like the limited calm he fakes on a daily basis. He has become Jack Kelly again, because that is who she was chosen to put her faith in, and he cannot let her down. They are defying the odds on this night, and they can do so again. Their belief can change the world, and Jack does believe in something. Boy, is she something.

Because of her, Jack rises to his feet after being down for so long.

* * *

_I'm so lost in you. A tragedy seemed to be over now._

* * *

Now that it is over, Jack wonders why she has stayed. Of course, this question lasts only briefly, because he soon remembers that Katherine is not a liar. She promised she'd stay and stand by him-for sure-and he'd be a fool not to believe her. And not a day goes by when he does not stop to count his blessings.

Jack would have been lost if she had not found him, had not shown mercy to a boy who had never seen it before. His life would have been nothing like it is now, promising and bright, filled with a future worth working towards. The long road to nowhere he'd once traveled has taken a swift turn, and Jack doesn't mind that it no longer points to Santa Fe.

Mercy has found him, and that doesn't happen every day.

* * *

**I know this doesn't cover the whole song, and I made that decision in the interest of keeping this relatively short. Some of the other songs that I feel represent Jack and Katherine's relationship are Won't Stop by OneRepublic, Ours by Taylor Swift, A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay, and Our Last Days by The Fray. Thanks for reading! **


End file.
